


Cellophane

by resonae



Series: child!verse [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-02 03:32:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resonae/pseuds/resonae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, Raleigh stumbles across a child in the Shatterdome with Yancy's face and Chuck Hansen's green eyes. Cooper Hansen is five years old, speaks with a thick Australian accent, and is the only connection Raleigh has left to his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Raleigh looked down when he felt a tug on his pant leg, and almost did a double take. The child staring up at him looked exactly like Yancy. He picked the kid up, eyes wide, searching.

On closer look, he looked  _almost_  exactly like Yancy. There were certain facial features that weren’t Yancy, like they were softened out a little. And his eyes were a bright green. “Can you find me mama?” The kid said. He wasn’t even crying, just wide-eyed and curious.

“Uh. Sure.” Raleigh looked around. “How old are you?”

“Five!” The kid’s grinning hugely in his direction. “You look a bit like my dad.”

Raleigh doesn’t say, well, you look a lot like my brother. He says instead, “Where’s your mom, anyway?”

The kid thinks for a bit. “If you go to Striker, you’ll probably find him.” Him? Raleigh frowns a little, and then realizes with a heavy sigh that the kid has an Australian accent. Probably one of the Striker Eureka techs. He hadn’t known there was a male birther in any of the tech crews, but it’s not like they made their biology public.

He carries the kid over to the Striker hangar. He’s looking around, figuring the mother would recognize his kid, or the kid would recognize the mother. He  _isn’t_  expecting for a way-too-familiar voice to say, “Cooper!”

Raleigh whirls on his heels to find Herc stalking toward him.

 

Herc hesitates when he sees Raleigh, but then the kid squeals in delight and flails, making Raleigh let him down on the ground. He runs headfirst into Herc’s leg and scrabbles at his knee until Herc picks him up. “Cooper.” Herc hisses. “What’ve I told you about running around out of sight?” Cooper pouts and looks sad, and he buries his face in Herc’s shoulder. Herc nods at Raleigh. “Thanks for finding him.”

Raleigh can’t help but blurt, “Is he yours?”

Herc frowns, a little, but before he can answer, Cooper pipes up and says, “He’s my grandpapa!” Herc hushes him, and gives Raleigh a look before he leaves.

Grandpapa. Raleigh reels when he realizes that it means the father is  _Chuck_. Or, he realizes, with another lurch, that Chuck’s the  _mother_.

—

Raleigh runs into Cooper again. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be going around on your own,” he tells Cooper, and Cooper makes a face.

“Mama’s mad at me,” Cooper sulks, “because I won’t eat my greens.”

Figures Chuck Hansen’s kid would be a picky eater. “So you ran away? Isn’t your mom gonna be even madder when he finds you?” The kid looks up wide-eyed at him, like he hasn’t thought of that possibility. Raleigh chuckles lightly and picks the kid up. “Let’s go find him. He’ll probably be less mad if you turn yourself in.”

Raleigh finds Chuck turning the Shatterdome mess hall – it’s mostly empty because it’s not really meal time and they aren’t serving anything – upside down. Raleigh clears his throat, and Chuck looks up. Raleigh reads the raw fear and worry on his face before Chuck wipes it off, looking angry and stern instead. He stalks over to Raleigh and snags Cooper from him. But even though Chuck snatches Cooper away, Chuck’s careful about the way he handles Cooper, tucking him securely toward him before he glares at Raleigh. “Mama,” Cooper whispers, “he didn’t do anything wrong. Just found me.”

Chuck seems to be mentally struggling – Raleigh bets Chuck already  _knew_. He just huffs and turns, beckoning Max to him. Cooper waves at him, grinning in his direction, and Max wags his tail at Raleigh before he trots after his owner.

—

He sees Cooper more often after that. Apparently, he got up on the very short list of people that Chuck approved for Cooper to be hanging around. Now that Raleigh was aware of Cooper’s presence, he seemed to be  _everywhere_. Mako was juggling him and a bunch of paperwork one day, then Tendo had him on his lap while furiously typing into something. The triplets (why were the triplets on this list of allowed-people) were teaching him how to play basketball the next day, and then the Russians were pulling a thick fur-lined coat onto him and taking him out. Raleigh even saw him in the lab, wearing comically big lab goggles and poking at something with Newt. He only felt a little better that Hermann was supervising.

It’s a few days until Cooper came crawling – literally crawling – to him again. “Cooper, I don’t think your mom’s gonna be too happy that you’re wiping the Shatterdome’s floor clean with your clothes.” Raleigh picks Cooper up. “Where’s your mom, anyway? Why’s he and your grandfather so busy?”

Cooper scrunches his face. “Grandpapa’s always working. He wasn’t like that before, but now he and Granddad Stacker are always  _working_. Mama’s always trying to get me to study.” He frowns. “Or he’s talking about dad.”

Raleigh flinches, and then realizes he’s never heard of Cooper’s dad. “Who’s your dad?”

Cooper shrugs, and it’s a movement that’s too old for a 5-year-old. “Mama says he died. I dunno. I never met him. All I know is his name. Yancy Becket.”

And just like that, Raleigh’s world crumbles under his feet.


	2. Chapter 2

Raleigh leaves Cooper with Mako, and then hunts down Chuck. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Chuck glares. “Tell you  _what_?”

“That  _your son is my nephew_.” At that, Chuck curses, rubbing his face. “What, like it wasn’t your intention to let me know?”

Chuck scowls. “ _No_. I just told him who his father was and showed him pictures because I felt like he  _deserved to know_. I didn’t fucking know that the Shatterdomes were going to close. I didn’t fucking know you’d come back, and I sure as hell didn’t fucking know he’d meet you. Cooper’s been a good kid, all right? Never cried for his dad or anything, especially since he had both me and my old man. But I still felt he should know who he came from, so I showed him pictures and shit. I didn’t have  _intention_  to let you know. What the fuck would I gain out of it, anyway?”

Raleigh ignores Chuck, just paces back and forth. Then something hits up. “Wait, you’re  _21_.” Chuck frowns at him. “Cooper’s  _five_? Meaning you were  _sixteen_?”

Chuck closes his eyes. “Don’t give me this speed, Becket. I already got it from my dad when I got knocked up. And I told your brother I was 18, all right? He didn’t even know. It was – It was right before he died.” Chuck runs an angry hand through his hair. “I don’t know. I was a horny teenager, and I used to idolize -” He stops. He glares at Raleigh, ducks his head and blushes furiously. “I used to be a fan. It seemed like a good idea.”

Raleigh narrows his eyes and resumes his pacing. “So – so what, you just figured you’d get knocked up, string Yancy up with a kid? Is that it? Too bad your grand plan to get hitched with the hero didn’t work, huh?”

Chuck’s gaze grows hard and furious. He took a thunderous step toward him, his face stormy. “Fuck. You.” His voice is a low hiss. “I didn’t  _know_  I was a birther, all right? You’re supposed to get tested when you’re 12, but  _fuck_ , there was a shit ton going on in my life when I turned 12. It didn’t even fucking occur in my head that I should get tested because we’re only 1% of the population and what the fuck are the chances, right? I didn’t know I was pregnant until I got so sick I couldn’t even eat and my old man took me to a doctor.”

Chuck doesn’t let Raleigh get in a word. He just snaps, “I didn’t  _know_. And I didn’t even fucking look for Yancy after I found out, which was, by the way,  _before_  he died. You ever go through 9 months of Jaegar piloting when you’re pregnant? You ever been in labor? I spent three hours of my labor in a fucking drivesuit keeping a kaiju from getting into Sydney. I thought I was going to miscarry. You ever feel  _that_ fear? That your kid’s not gonna be alive?”

Chuck’s breathing hard now, fists clenched so tightly he was shaking. “You know, I never felt like being a single parent, because my old man took care of Cooper just as much as I did. He filled in the space of Cooper’s dad, and sure, sometimes I wanted  _someone_  to be here, help me while I changed Cooper’s diapers – or just – just  _be_  there and share my pain when Cooper got hurt. But I  _never_  meant to hitch up Yancy with this. Even if he – even if he were here, I wouldn’t have done it. So  _fuck you._  You don’t know even half the story. I thought – I thought if Cooper hung out with you, he’d have someone who knew his dad, but obviously I was fucking wrong. Stay the  _fuck_  away from my son.”

—

Raleigh knocks on the Marshal’s door. It opens, and he finds Herc in it, like he expected. “I know you’re busy, sir.” Raleigh says, quickly. “I just needed to talk to you. It doesn’t have to be now. I just wanted to.. make an appointment. Kind of.”

Herc raises an eyebrow. “Well, I’m done here.”

They walk out together, and Raleigh rubs his face. “I found out that – that Cooper’s father is Yancy.”

Herc nods, not even looking surprised. “And how did you feel about that?” They stop by the mess hall to pick up coffee. Herc offers Raleigh one, and then steers him toward a secluded corner of the place.

Raleigh sighs. “I might have said some things to Chuck.” Herc nods, again, his face unreadable. “I’m not going to lie. I meant it, when I said it. But I – I know it wasn’t true.” He pauses, then asks quietly, “Did he have a hard time raising Cooper?”

Herc nods. “He went into labor in the drivesuit. Broke his water while we were fighting a kaiju.” Raleigh winces. “Yeah, it was pretty bad. And then there was a point where we both thought we might have lost the kid.” Raleigh blanches at this, rubbing his head and wondering how he’s going to make this up. “Raising him wasn’t that bad, but Chuck had his low points. He wanted someone that wasn’t his old man helping him along. He was trying to juggle raising a kid, fighting kaiju, and keeping Cooper away from the public eye. It wasn’t the easiest, but he managed. Cooper’s a smart kid, and he doesn’t ask for his dad. But he’d do better with one.” Herc searches Raleigh’s response carefully. “We’re heading back to Australia.”

“ _What_?”

“The Sydney Shatterdome is re-opening. Pentecost needs someone to run it, so I’m going back. Chuck and Cooper are going back, too.”

—

Raleigh finds himself in front of Chuck’s room, holding a bouquet of flowers and wondering what the fuck to do. He figures Chuck has to come out sooner or later, or return sooner or later, but he doesn’t know how long the flowers are going to stay good.

Thankfully, he doesn’t have to wait long. He hears, “Mama, it’s Raleigh!” Cooper says ‘Raleigh’ the way his mother says it, with thick vowels that roll off the tongue. Raleigh turns to see Chuck’s expression harden. Cooper runs up to him, and looks at the flowers. “Hey, Raleigh!”

Raleigh kneels, ruffles Cooper’s hair. “Hey, Cooper. Can you go run this back to your mom? Tell him I said I’m sorry.” Cooper does immediately, running off toward Chuck with the bouquet in his hands. Chuck takes it, looking a bit uncertain. Cooper announces Raleigh’s apology, and Chuck’s face softens a little. He looks up at Raleigh, sighs, and tells Cooper something Raleigh can’t quite make out.

They sit on the steps leading up to Chuck’s room after that, the cellophane around the flowers crinkling gently. “I meant what I said, back then.” Chuck stiffens, so Raleigh adds on quickly, “But I didn’t know what I was talking about. I – I don’t mean it, anymore. And I’m sorry. Really, really sorry. The only excuse I have for myself is that I was just – I was just overcome with emotion.”

Chuck shuffles, and the cellophane crinkles. “I know.” He says, simply, and then messes with the flowers. “We’re going to Australia.”

“I heard.” He stares at Chuck’s hands, fumbling with the cellophane, and he doesn’t know why that’s the final straw. “I’m going with you.”

Chuck doesn’t even look surprised.

—

In retrospect, it makes sense. Raleigh has no ties to Hong Kong – maybe Mako, but his bigger concern is with this kid. His brother’s son. His  _nephew_. He sits on the plane that the Marshal got for them, Chuck across the aisle, sleeping with Cooper in his lap. Cooper’s sound asleep, drooling onto his mother’s shoulder.

“Kinda cute, isn’t it?” Herc says, smiling softly and kneeling before Chuck. Raleigh can’t help but agree. Herc pushes a towel under Cooper’s mouth, and Cooper mumbles but settles down again. “I always tell him to use a towel, but he wakes up and complains about Cooper drooling all over him all the time.”

Herc doesn’t question Raleigh’s choice, and Raleigh thinks he probably understands without him having to explain anything at all. He doesn’t get up, just watches Herc gently fuss at his son and grandson. “He looks like Yancy when he was little.”

Herc snorts. “Yeah? I thought he looked exactly like Chuck when he was little. Probably a bit of both.” He straightens, and ruffles Cooper’s hair when he blearily opens his eyes. “Go to back to sleep, kiddo.” Cooper does, yawning and rubbing his cheek against his mother’s shoulder. “Of course, Chuck was never this pliant.”

Hours later, Chuck wakes up before Cooper does and curses quietly. Raleigh looks over at Chuck. “I’ll take him for a bit, while you change.” Chuck hesitates, clings onto Cooper tightly for a second, but then sighs and gently transfers Cooper to Raleigh. He takes about a minute to change, slipping his shirt off and pulling on a dark hoodie in its place. The towel and the shirt are shoved into a plastic bag and tossed to the side, and Chuck holds his arms out for Cooper. “Can I hold him?”

Chuck hesitates, again. He looks like he’s going to say no, but then he just turns around, tucks his hands under his elbows, and shuts his eyes. So Raleigh’s left with listening to Cooper breathe evenly in his ear and watching Chuck’s shoulders rise and fall rhythmically.

It’s nice, Raleigh thinks. This peace.


	3. Chapter 3

Raleigh does research on the Australian schools. Cooper would be starting the first year of elementary school (or Year 1, as Australians call it), January next year. But Chuck has apparently been teaching Cooper his math and reading since he was much,  _much_  younger, because Raleigh looks over Chuck’s shoulder as Cooper sits at the mess hall table with him and Cooper is doing single-digit multiplications.

Raleigh is pretty certain he was still learning how to count when he was five. “Is Cooper a genius?” He whispers to Herc, as Cooper grips the pencil in his hand. He gets a cookie every time he gets ten questions right, and his cookie pile has diminished quite a lot.

Herc grins. “Gets it from his mama. Chuck was a smart kid, too. Wanted to be a scientist, when he was younger.” Herc pauses. “Before the kaiju hit.” Raleigh doesn’t know if he should be happy or sad with the image of a little Chuck in a lab gown that pops into his head. He just nods and turns his attention back to Cooper and Chuck. Cooper’s gone through all of his cookies by then, which means his lesson is over. Chuck carefully brushes the cookie crumbs from the papers and organizes them carefully, looking smugly proud of his son.

“He missed kindy, so he gotta keep up with his studies.” Chuck explains, though Raleigh’s pretty certain they don’t teach the multiplication table in kindergarten. “Newt and Hermann used to teach him science back in Hong Kong, but now I gotta find someone else who’s willing to put up with the sprog.”

Cooper sticks his tongue out. “I don’t wanna learn science from anyone who’s not Uncle Newt! Or Uncle Hermann. They make it  _fun_.”

“Oh, I bet they do,” Herc mutters, reaching out to ruffle Cooper’s hair. “Gottlieb wanted to teach him math too, at first, but his brain’s too complicated for a 5 year old. He was getting frustrated Cooper didn’t know how to do calculus, so he just settled on showing Cooper experiments. Add Geiszler to the mix, and you have quite the trio.”

Cooper crosses his arm and huffs, which is a really Chuck-like posture. Raleigh doesn’t doubt that’s exactly who Cooper learned it from. “Better than mama’s science.” Chuck makes a face at Cooper, who just grumbles under his breath. “Can I go play, now?”

“Yeah, just make sure Max is with you, all right?” Chuck unbuckles Max’s leash from his collar. “Keep an eye on him, Max.” Max woofs before he trots after Cooper, sticking close. Cooper disappears around the corner. When Chuck catches Raleigh’s concerned look, he shrugs. “Coop’s been at the Sydney Shatterdome longer than he was at the Hong Kong one. Our chief of security has cameras everywhere. He’ll be keeping an eye on Coop. Everyone here knows who he is. Plus, Max’s with him.”

Max, Raleigh learns over the course of next few days, is an incredibly smart dog.

—

There’s a series of rapid, light knocks at his door, and Raleigh opens his door to find Cooper. “Raleigh!”

 _Rawwleyyy_ , it sounds like. “Mama says I should ask if you wanna come along to see Sydney. Granddad’s busy, but Max and mama and I are gonna go get dinner.”

Of course Raleigh comes along. Sydney is still mostly in rubbles and construction, including the famous opera house. “It wasn’t really all that,” Chuck says, when he catches Raleigh looking at the remains of the famous landmark. “You’ll probably get to see it rebuilt. Come on, Coop. Don’t wander.” Chuck hands Raleigh Max’s leash and scoops up Cooper into his arms. They walk – most of the roads are torn apart anyway – and end up at a small restaurant. Its front wall is smashed open, but it’s still in business. There’s not much people in it, but the old woman who’s at the kitchen beams at Chuck.

“Charlie!” She gushes, wiping her hands on her apron as she runs out. “I heard you were back. Oh, and how’s my little hero?” Cooper laughs delightedly at the woman’s attention. “Come in, come in. Sit. And you – oh, Raleigh Becket!” She gives him a warm hug, and ushers them to a table. “The usual, Charlie?”

“Yeah, Mags. Sounds good. Get the same for Raleigh, too.” Chuck takes the bowl of water from the woman and sets it down for Max to gulp up. Raleigh hears the water run, and then there’s a sizzling of the pans and a delicious smell wafts from the kitchen.

Soon there are plates descending on their table. Raleigh and Chuck get hamburgers, and there’s a pizza in the middle that looks big enough to feed an entire family. “Try it.” Cooper says, already diving for the pizza before Chuck catches his hands and wipes it down with wet tissues he conjures from nowhere. Cooper sits patiently until Chuck’s finished and then goes in for a slice, taking a slice that’s about as big as his face and chomping down.

Chuck, for his part, is more poised about it. He even cuts his hamburger into pieces, pushing the bite-sized pieces onto Cooper’s plate that get snatched up and eaten almost as soon as they’re placed there. Raleigh doesn’t know how Chuck’s keeping up with Cooper’s appetite, but it looks like he’s got experience. “Try your hamburger, mate.” Chuck advises. “It’s different from the way you Americans make them.”

Raleigh bites into his – he’s too impatient for the cutting up Chuck’s doing, and he’s pretty certain Chuck would be biting into his if he wasn’t giving half of it to Cooper. He chews, and then blinks. “What is it?”

“Beetroot.” The old lady says, appearing to hand them a plate of fries. “How do you like it?”

“It’s good,” Raleigh says, a little surprised. “Really good.” She beams at him before going back to the kitchen. Chuck grins at him, cuts more pieces for Cooper, and nods at the pizza, too. Some of the pizza goes to Max, who’s wagging his tail patiently under the table, and a slice ends up on Chuck’s plate but even that goes mostly to Cooper.

Chuck is surprisingly good at this raising-a-kid business, which surprises Raleigh. If he made a list of the good parent candidates in the world, Raleigh would have put Chuck low on the list. But apparently he’s wrong. Chuck somehow manages to balance eating his own meal with making sure Cooper’s eating enough and wiping his mouth clean, and then making sure Cooper’s not eating too fast or too much at a time.

When Cooper lets out a burp, Chuck scowls. “I  _told_  you not to pick up any bad habits from the Wei brothers.” He says. “What do you say, Coop?”

“Excuse me.” Cooper chirps, but doesn’t look sorry until Chuck gives him a look, and he repeats, “excuse me,” sounding a little more sincere. Raleigh can’t help it – he laughs. Cooper grins at him and Chuck rolls his eyes.

—

They bring back a portion for Herc, who wolfs it down. Cooper eats half of it (again), before Chuck can yell at him about taking his granddad’s food. Herc looks used to it, balancing Cooper on his left thigh and eating with his right hand, letting Cooper swipe from his plate whenever he wants.

“All right.” Chuck says, exasperated as he wipes Cooper’s tomato-sauce covered face and hands with his pack of (rapidly dwindling) wet tissue. “Are you full now, you little glutton?” Cooper sits obediently as Chuck wipes him down. “Now, we’re gonna go brush your teeth, clean up, and then you can go bug Raleigh when your granddad and I work a little, yeah?”

Cooper launches himself into Raleigh’s arms. Raleigh manages not to drop him, and he chuckles when Cooper yells, “Okay!” loudly enough to make Max whimper. He joins Chuck, watching Chuck supervise Cooper brush his teeth – there are a few  _you missed a spot_  and ­ _oh you’re not done yet, kiddo_  before he’s allowed to out his melon-flavored toothpaste. Chuck washes Cooper’s face himself, surprisingly gentle with the baby soap. Cooper gets a hair wash, too, but not a full-on shower.

Chuck wraps a towel around his shoulders so his hair doesn’t drop onto his shirt before handing him over to Raleigh. “He’s supposed to be in bed by 9. At the  _latest_  9:30. No later.” Chuck says. “Usually, a glass of warm milk will calm him down if he’s too hyper.” He glances at Cooper, bright-eyed and giggling, and says, “You’re probably going to need that warm milk.”


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing they do is head to the kwoon. “Look!” Cooper says, proudly flaunting a tiny bo staff. “Granddad made is especially for me.” He swings it around and Raleigh neatly steps out of the way. “Can you teach me how to use it? Mama says he can’t teach me.” Cooper’s voice drops to a whisper, like he’s telling a secret. “Granddad says it’s because he sucks at it.”

 

Raleigh can’t help it – he bursts out laughing and says, “He doesn’t _suck_. He’s one of the best pilots in the world. He can’t suck.” He doesn’t add that Chuck’s more about strength than technique, and strength can’t exactly be taught to a 5 year old.

 

“I know how to do this, though!” Cooper chirps, and does a rather impressive imitation of what Raleigh recognizes as a Wei brother move. Cooper grins at him. “Hu taught me!”

 

Raleigh nodded. “That was very good. Okay, we can go through a couple of moves today.” He ruffles Cooper’s hair before teaching him proper stance and then the basics of how to wield a bo staff.

 

They’re learning the third type of swing when Raleigh glances at the clock. It reaches 8:45. “Okay, kiddo,” he says, relaxing the grip on his staff. “Time to get ready for bed.”

 

Cooper sticks his bottom lip out and pulls a puppy face that looks too much like Yancy’s. “But I’m not tired! Can’t we train just a little more?”

 

Raleigh reaches down to pick Cooper up. “You like spending time with me, Cooper, right?” Cooper nods, a big grin stretching over his face. “You want to do this again, yeah? Then we shouldn’t make your mom be mad at me, so he lets us do this again.”

 

That gets Cooper seriously thinking. After a bit of time, he nods solemnly and says, “You’re right, Raleigh. Mama always says honest work comes before any reward.” He hugs his staff to his chest before letting Raleigh put it away. He yawns and smiles sleepily at Raleigh. “And I’m kinda sleepy now, anyway.”

 

Raleigh manages to wash Cooper’s hair and brush his teeth one more time before pulling the blanket down to the floor (the bed’s too small for both of them to sleep in). Cooper settles immediately on it, yawning before he tucks himself under the sheet Raleigh puts around him. He’s asleep in seconds, breathing evenly, sighing contently as he makes himself comfortable.

 

Sleeping, Cooper looks even more like Yancy. Raleigh wonders if Chuck or Herc told Cooper what his relationship to Cooper was, and then guesses it’s probably a no, or Cooper would have brought it up.

 

He pulls a second sheet around himself, grateful for Australia’s warm weather, and falls asleep to Cooper’s even breathing.

 

\--

 

He’s jolted up hours later by a wail. He shoots up when he realizes it’s Cooper, sobbing, “Mama…”

 

“Hey,” Raleigh whispers. “Hey, Coop, what’s wrong?” He reaches over to flip the lights on and then to pull Cooper into a hug. He immediately realizes what the problem is – Cooper’s wet himself. Raleigh chuckles kindly. “Oh, is that it? I thought you got hurt. It’s okay, Coop.”

 

Cooper wails, “Mama… I want mama.”

 

Raleigh pulls Cooper onto the bed. “Let’s get you out of these clothes, first. They must be uncomfortable.” Cooper hiccup-sobs but doesn’t complain as Raleigh tugs his wet clothes off. Raleigh pulls Cooper into one of his old shirts instead, tying it so it doesn’t slip off. He bundles the blanket and the sheet and the clothes to a makeshift bag. “Cooper, it’s nothing to cry about. No big deal. Everyone does that when you were little. It’s an accident. I probably should’ve had you go before you fell asleep.”

 

Cooper hiccups, “Even you?”

 

“Yeah. And man, Ya – my brother used to tease me about it every time. But he’d help me clean up.” Cooper looks up, curiosity written all over his face. “He was the best, my brother.”

 

Cooper tugs at Raleigh’s pants, his embarrassment and want of his mother apparently forgotten in the wake of this new question. “Where is he now?”

 

Raleigh smiles sadly, ruffling Cooper’s hair. “He didn’t make it.”

 

Cooper takes this information, and nods quietly. “Like my dad.”

 

Raleigh almost laughs at the irony. _Kid, you’ve no idea just how much alike_. “Let’s go down to the laundry room. It’s open all day and they have vending machines! I’ll buy you candy.”

 

The prospect of candy wipes Cooper’s uncertainty completely away and puts a big smile on his face. He even leads the way through the silent Shatterdome, giggling silently when Raleigh exaggerates his movements to be ‘silent’.

 

Cooper falls asleep mid-drying, so Raleigh carries Cooper back along with a half-finished bag of gummies and clean laundry. Cooper wakes blearily when Raleigh brushes his teeth, but doesn’t whine and spits and gargles obediently when prompted, settling back on the newly cleaned blankets without a fuss.

 

\--

 

“I wet myself,” Cooper announces to Chuck, when Chuck comes over in the morning to pick him up. “But it’s okay, because it was an accident and Raleigh said so. Plus I haven’t wet myself since _ever_.”

 

Chuck looks amused. “Sorry,” he tells Raleigh. “He hasn’t done that in a really long time.”

 

“Since _ever_ ,” Cooper insists, and Chuck rolls his eyes, taking his son’s hand and nods. “Mama, I’m hungry.”

 

Chuck snorts. “Maybe if you woke up early like a good boy, the mess hall would be still serving breakfast. But luckily for you, I think they might still be serving.” He looks back at Raleigh. “You coming, or what?”

 

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, of course.” Raleigh shrugs a shirt on in a hurry. He hasn’t expected to be included, but Chuck seems to have expected for Raleigh to be included. He takes Cooper’s other hand and Cooper squeals in delight when the lift him off the ground. Chuck’s not looking at him – he’s looking at Cooper, smiling warmly, but Raleigh’s looking at Chuck and he feels his chest flutter.

 

Great.

 

\--

 

A few weeks pass without anything much happening. Cooper sometimes demands Raleigh show him how to use the bo staff, and sometimes Chuck and Herc have stuff to do (sometimes Raleigh and Herc have stuff to do, too), and on those days Raleigh gets to spend time with Cooper.

 

One day, Herc comes to the mess hall, bags under his eyes and wobbly. Chuck and Cooper aren’t with him. “What’s wrong?” Raleigh asks, alarmed.

 

“Coop’s got a cold. Poor little bugger. Chuck’s taking care of him. Stayed up all night.” Herc takes three plates, and Raleigh helps him carry them back. Cooper looks miserable, huddled under a blanket as Chuck – looking even more miserable – pats him down with a cool towel.

 

Cooper wails when he sees him. “Raleigh.” Sick, Cooper’s Australian accent seems to thicken, and he squirms under the blanket. “The medicine tastes blech,” he complains. “It says it’s grape flavored but it’s gross.”

 

Raleigh sighs in relief, because a Cooper that’s complaining about how gross cold medicine tastes can’t be too sick. Chuck sighs. “This is why we listen to mom when he says don’t go running around with your hair wet. Did we learn our lesson?”

 

Cooper grumbles something unintelligible, and Herc rolls his eyes, settling down and offering Chuck his own plate. Cooper takes the soup from Raleigh, but tries to roll away when Chuck reminds him he has to finish the plate so he can take medicine. “But it tastes grosssss.” Cooper whines, and then coughs. He sniffles, and then poutingly settles for finishing the soup. The fact that he hasn’t lost his appetite makes Raleigh feel better. Just a regular cold, then. Probably light, nothing too bad.

 

As expected, Cooper’s pretty much better by the end of the day – his fever’s broken, and the on-site doctor gives him a clean bill of health.

 

About 3 in the morning that night, Raleigh wakes up from a small tap on his door. He opens it blearily to find Cooper in his pajamas. “Sup, Coop?” He says.

 

“Mama’s _real_ sick.” Cooper says. “Okay, now I gotta go find granddad.”

 

Before Raleigh can ask Cooper why he came to get Raleigh before he got Herc, and where the hell Herc is if he’s not in his room with Chuck and Cooper at 3 in the morning, Cooper’s run off. Raleigh blearily pulls his shirt on and goes to find Chuck’s room.

 

Chuck, it turns out, isn’t just suffering from a light cold like Cooper was. “Fuck that kid,” Chuck says, but without any heat. “I swear, I catch everything he gets. And he gets everything.” He rasps, and then coughs like he’s about to die. “And I get it a hundred times worse. What’s up with that?”

 

“You’re complaining, so I’m guessing that you’re not that sick.” Herc says, opening the door. Cooper’s hanging onto his arm, and Herc’s holding a bottle of pills in his other hand. Herc nods at Raleigh, like he’s not even surprised that Raleigh’s here – and ruffles Chuck’s hair.

 

Sometimes, especially with Cooper around, Raleigh forgets that Chuck’s still a kid – he’s not even 22 yet. But with Herc, he looks like a sick kid. Herc settles down next to the bed, stroking his son’s cheek and Chuck grumbles something, rubbing his cheek on Herc’s hand. Max whines happily from the foot of the bed.

 

Cooper climbs up into Raleigh’s lap and falls asleep within minutes, drooling all over his shoulder. But Raleigh’s so content he can’t even bring himself to care, even the slightest.


	5. Chapter 5

Chuck recovers incredibly quickly, and Cooper doesn’t have enough of an attention span to stay with his mother while he’s on the post-sick drowsiness. Herc takes Cooper for a walk around Sydney, so Raleigh’s stuck Chuck-sitting.

 

Raleigh leans back in his seat. “Listen, I was thinking for a long, long time about this. I don’t want you to balk on me, or anything. I just want to know what your opinion is.” Chuck looks up from his book. “How would you feel about telling Cooper that I’m actually his uncle?” Before Chuck can say anything, he quickly adds, “We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just want to know how you feel.”

 

Chuck nods but doesn’t respond. He looks like he’s giving it a thought, at least, so Raleigh doesn’t prod him until he says, cautiously, “I’ll have to ask my dad. See what he thinks about it.”

 

That’s fair enough, so Raleigh nods.

 

\--

 

 _Ask my dad_ apparently meant _Let’s have a meeting about this_ , so Raleigh finds himself sitting at the empty mess with the Shatterdome Marshal and his son. Herc narrows his eyes at Raleigh. Raleigh tries to keep himself from fidgeting too much. “So?” Herc says.

 

Raleigh blinks, and Herc glares.

 

“So tell me why you want to tell Coop you’re his uncle.”

 

Raleigh clears his throat. “Herc, I know you’re cautious of what I’m doing. But I’m also – he’s the only blood I got left. I’m not trying to replace either of you in his life. I’d just… I’d just like a connection. And I won’t leave. I swear.”

 

Herc crosses his arms across his chest and stares at him for a long, long time. Raleigh tries to keep as still as he can. Finally, he says, “And that’s it?”

 

“Sir?”

 

“That’s it, then. You just want to stay in Cooper’s life because he’s the only thing left of Yancy you’ve got.” Herc says, his voice smooth. Raleigh glances over to Chuck, who’s staring intently at him. No, that’s _not_ it, but he doesn’t want to scare Chuck away with what might not even be there. Not in front of his father. But Herc catches the side-gaze anyway and smirks. Raleigh thinks he’s going to say _stay away from my son and grandson_ , but Herc says instead, “Welcome to the family, then, Becket.”

 

\--

 

Raleigh, Chuck, and Herc take Cooper out to the restaurant Chuck took them to before. Herc orders the ‘usual’, and before Cooper can start digging into the fries, he tells him, “Coop. Raleigh here has got something to tell you.”

 

Cooper looks up, his green eyes wide. “Is it a surprise?”

 

Raleigh clears his throat. “Yes.”

 

“The good kind?”

 

“I hope so, kid.” Raleigh smiles. He fidgets with his wallet, and takes out a battered picture he’s kept of himself and Yancy. He offers it to Cooper over the table.

 

Cooper takes it. “It’s daddy.” He notes. “And you, Raleigh.”

 

Raleigh nods. Slowly, and Chuck nudges him with his foot under the table. “Yeah. Listen, Coop. Chuck kept this from you because he wanted my permission, and then I didn’t say anything because I wanted his permission. We didn’t do it on purpose, so don’t be mad.”

 

Cooper doesn’t look mad. He just looks curiously up. “Did you know daddy, Raleigh?”

 

“Coop, uh. He…. Yancy’s my brother.”

 

There’s silence after that, but then Cooper takes it surprisingly easily. He nods, sagely, and then asks Raleigh, “Can I have this, Raleigh?”

 

Raleigh flinches, and Chuck reaches for the photo in Cooper’s hands. “No, Coop, that’s special to him.” Cooper leans back, not quite out of Chuck’s reach, but his intent is obvious. “Cooper.” Chuck sounds exasperated, maybe a little embarrassed. “Sorry, mate,” he grumbles before starting to stand. “He’s not usually like this.”

 

Raleigh says, quickly, “No, he can have it.” He smiles at Cooper. “Maybe we can exchange? You can call me uncle?”

 

Cooper beams at him. “Yeah!” He jumps off his chair, runs around Herc’s back (who is grinning, Raleigh notes), and tackles Raleigh off the chair in a hug.

 

“Cooper, _behave_ ,” Chuck says, somewhere from over their heads, but Raleigh’s too busy laughing with Cooper to care. The restaurant is empty anyway.

 

\--

 

‘Uncle Raleigh’ sounds weird, but it only takes him a couple of days to warm up to it. Cooper wants to hear stories about his father, so Raleigh tells him the best ones (he leaves out the ones where Yancy and he tried to pick up women and failed). “Do you think he would have liked me?” Cooper says, uncharacteristically shy and fidgety.

 

“He would have _loved_ you,” Raleigh says, completely certain. “You’re so smart. Just like him. He would’ve been the proudest dad in the world.” He means it. Yancy would have adored Cooper. If he’d been alive, Raleigh was certain every one of his conversations would have started with ‘ _my son Cooper_ ’. It makes his chest twinge a little.

 

“I’m smart like mommy,” Cooper replies, sounding proud, but he ducks into his shy tone again. “Maybe like daddy, too?”

 

“Both of your parents were pretty smart.” Raleigh agrees.

 

“Aunt Mako is really smart,” Cooper observes, in his childishly sage tone like he’s made the biggest discovery of the universe.

 

Raleigh can’t help but grin. “Yeah. She’s brilliant. Anyway, that’s not the only reason he would’ve loved you. You’re the best kid there is.”

 

Cooper laughs delightedly, back to his happy-go-lucky self. Raleigh tickles his sides and sets Cooper down when he shrieks in laughter and flails around. Cooper settles for playing with his toy trucks and robots (he’s got a mini Gypsy and a mini Striker) on the floor, making whooshing noises with his mouth. After a point, Cooper looks up, his eyes wide. “Do _you_ like me?” His expression tells Raleigh that he hasn’t considered that question before.

 

The innocence makes Raleigh laugh again. “Of _course_ I like you.” He stoops down to squeeze Cooper’s nose.

 

Cooper struggles out of his pinch and smiles slyly. “Do you like mommy?” He draws out ‘mommy’, like ‘moooooomy’. He looks like he already knows what the answer is, but he’s looking expectantly at Raleigh.

 

Raleigh ruffles his hair. Smiles. “Yeah, kid. I like your mom a lot.”

 

Cooper nods and holds up Striker. “Me too!”


End file.
